The findings of this original survey investigation suggest that people with ‘sensitive’ personality traits are far more likely than a control group to report anomalous perceptions. Such persons are likelier, too, to assert that they’re affected by longstanding allergies, chronic pain, chronic fatigue, depression, migraine headache, and pronounced sensitivity to light, sound, and smell. These individuals are also more apt to report that immediate family members suffered from the same conditions.

Together, the results raise a pair of intriguing questions: Could environmental sensitivity – and anomalous perception – have a common neurobiological basis? And could such extraordinary sensitivity run in families?